United Arab Emirates U19 squad have given an early warning to their group stage opponents in 2020 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup, to not take then lightly by any means as they defeated a much fancied New Zealand U19 by a solitary wicket margin win in the warm-up fixtures.
UAE bowlers did a fine job of restricting Kiwis to 217 in their 50 overs, before a last wicket partnership of 31-runs between Muhammad Farazuddin and Chathiyan Dashan took their side to victory in a tense finish. There were half-centuries for Rhys Mariu and Vriitya Aravind for their respective teams in the game.
New Zealand bowlers will be disappointed that they could not defend 31 off 16 deliveries, when the 9th wicket fell for UAE. But they will be happy about the way things were pulled back after a 92-runs opening wicket partnership between Vriitya Aravind and Aryan Lakra for the UAE side.
Earlier, New Zealand innings were revived by late-middle order partnerships for the 6th and 7th wickets featuring Beckham Wheeler-Greenall and Simon Keene, after UAE bowlers took out half the side with only 111 on board in the 32nd over.
Both sides still have a lot to work upon (especially middle order batting) in their final warm-up fixtures before tournament proper begins.
Brief Scores
New Zealand U19 217/9 in 50 overs (Rhys Mariu 56, Beckham Wheeler-Greenall 41, Simon Keene 40, Hayden Dickson 17 n.o, Sanchit Sharma 2/23, Rishabh Mukherjee 2/44, Chathiyan Dashan 1/20, Akasha Tahir 1/11, Aryan Lakra 1/47) lost to United Arab Emirates U19 218/9 in 49.3 overs (Vriitya Aravind 53, Aryan Lakra 46, Muhammad Farazuddin 37 n.o, Wasi Shah 20, Jesse Tashkoff 3/31, Adithya Ashok 3/54, Hayden Dickson 2/23, Beckham Wheeler-Greenall 1/40) by 1 wicket
